52 Sick and Elderly Religious Sisters in Ukraine Thank You for Your SupportTuesday, March 25, 2014

Success Story

All their religious lives have been devoted to the service of God and neighbor. They are the Sisters of the Order of Saint Basil the Great, and they are now, most of them, very old and infirm. Courageously and faithfully, they endured the bitter times of Communist persecution. But the poor food, lack of proper medical care and often immense psychological stress have in many cases undermined their health.

Now they are elderly and exhausted by their hard lives and have to survive on a minimal pension, far too little, given the high cost of gas, water, electricity and medical care, for the economic situation in Ukraine is dire indeed. But the fact that they have a pension at all is perhaps the only good thing they have inherited from the communist era. Not because they are nuns, but because of their work in the hospitals, kindergartens and other state institutions, they now have an entitlement to a minimum level of pension. The younger Sisters who are taking over from them today will have no pension entitlement when they are old.

Many of the Sisters are very ill and need regular medical assistance. For example, Sister Margareta from the Lviv region, aged 73 and suffering from cancer, or Sister Maria from Ternopil, who is 64 and suffers from kidney disease. Or again, Sister Onisima, who is just 33 years old, but suffers from chronic back pain.

Most of the Sisters live alone or in small groups of two or three, because the provincial mother house of the order still has no convent large enough for all the Sisters to live in. And while the Sisters strive to provide for themselves, there are elderly and sick among them and they need our support.

Thanks to the kindness of our benefactors, ACN was able to step in and help last year with $10,800 for the most urgent needs. The Sisters have written to express their heartfelt thanks and the promise of their prayers. Their message: May God reward you!

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